Sound emitting flower bouquet

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is the combination of bouquets of flowers with a sound emitting device. The sound emitting device is preferably a solid state chip that includes a miniature battery powered printed circuit board including a memory chip with musical tone and/or vocal instructions and a piezo-electric buzzer or speaker with a switch for the user to activate same. While the preferred embodiment includes a selection of messages and/or music for a variety of occasions for which the gift of a bouquet of flowers is conventional, the invention also contemplates means by which the memory chip can be impressed with a personalized vocal message directed to the recipient. This message may be recorded by the giver at or after the time of purchase, either by itself, or with a musical recording upon which it is either superimposed or added.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the floral industry, generally inregard to the concept of the combination of a floral bouquet with soundemitting apparatus to present a vocal and/or musical message. Morespecifically, invention is particularly aimed at, but not limited to,bouquets of flowers such as displayed for sale in supermarkets and otherretail establishments in containers of water in combination with a solidstate chip such as designed for the emission of sound such as vocaland/or musical greetings.

2. Description of the Prior Art

It is well known that the sale of bouquets of flowers, preferably butnot necessarily cut flowers, is both done through retail establishmentssuch as florists, often placed in vases, and more economically inwrapped bouquets of cut flowers in supermarkets where said bouquets aredisplayed in containers or buckets of water. When sold through florists,bouquets of cut flowers are sold not only in vases, but also in dry packboxes, sometimes with each flower stem base encapsulated in anindividual vial of water. However, it has also become commonplace forbouquets of fresh cut flowers to be sold in supermarkets and otherretail establishments in bunches that are often simply held togetherwith a rubber band or the like.

Whether flowers are sold to the consuming public by florists, insupermarkets, through other retail establishments, in open air markets,or by any other means, it is well established that flowers intended as agift to someone else by the purchaser thereof will be accompanied by acard frequently identifying the recipient, the purchaser, and someusually abbreviated personal message such as “Happy Birthday,” “HappyAnniversary,” “Get Well,” “Congratulations,” “Sympathy on Your Loss,” orwith a holiday greeting for a large number of holidays such as NewYear's Day, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Hanukkah,Christmas and some others. Cards carrying these greetings are ordinarilyquite small, in part because they must be attached either to the flowersor to some means that must be inserted into the bouquet.

Separate from the flower industry, there has been created in the 20thcentury an ever growing enterprise of greeting cards. The greeting cardindustry creates and markets greeting cards for virtually everyconceivable occasion in a relationship between the giver and therecipient. Thus there are greeting cards for all the occasions andcircumstances as described above concerning flowers, except that thenumbers thereof are greatly multiplied by relationships. That is, thereare greeting cards from wife to husband or husband to wife, from oneparent or another or both to children, from children to parents, fromaunts and uncles to nieces and nephews and vice versa, from grandparentsto grandchildren and vice versa, etc. This is further amplified bydifferences between religious and secular messages, with card designs inan almost infinite variety with and without poetry, and with seriousnessor humor. Furthermore, in the last 20 years or so greeting cards havebecome available with sound emitting chips that provide musical and/orvocal greetings, usually triggered by opening up the greeting card. Suchgreeting cards typically play synthesized music or vocal sounds by theincorporation of a memory, an oscillator/speaker, and a tiny batteryusing a printed circuit board as a part of a miniature solid state chip.Such devices frequently use a piezo-electric buzzer for converting thesignal in memory to an audible signal. However, so far as is known tothe present inventor such technology has never been adopted in thefloral industry, and a preexamination search commissioned on behalf ofthe present inventor has revealed no such prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Bearing in mind the foregoing, it is a principal object of the presentinvention to combine all of the present, contemplated, and futuretechniques of the flower industry in the assembly, packaging, display,marketing and sales of flowers with use of sound emitting apparatus toprovide the sellers and givers of flowers with the ability tocommunicate audible musical and/or vocal greetings and messages toflower recipient.

Another principal object of the invention is to enhance themarketability of flower bouquets and other gifts that include flowers byenhancing said gifts with audible greetings and messages.

Another object of the invention is to facilitate the focus to recipientof the purpose of the giver in the gift of a bouquet of flowers.

A related object of the invention is to allow the recipient of a bouquetof flowers to retain the musical and/or vocal greeting that accompaniedthe gift of cut flowers after disposal thereof.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent to those skilled in theart upon reference to the following descriptions.

In accordance with the major aspect of the present invention therewithprovided for use with a bouquet of flowers a solid state chip thatincludes a miniature battery powered printed circuit board including amemory chip with musical tone and/or vocal instructions and apiezo-electric buzzer or speaker with a switch for the user to activatesame. While the preferred embodiment includes a selection of messagesand/or music for a variety of occasions for which the gift of a bouquetof flowers is conventional, the invention also contemplates means bywhich the memory chip can be impressed with a personalized vocal messagedirected to the recipient. This message may be recorded by the giver ator after the time of purchase, either by itself, or with a musicalrecording upon which it is either superimposed or added.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various other features of the invention will become apparent to thoseskilled in the art from the following description taken in conjunctionwith the appended drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the preferred embodiment showing thechip attached to one of the stems of the cut flowers.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an alternate embodiment of the presentinvention in which the chip is mounted upon top of a slender reed thatsimulates a flower stem and extends downwardly to the base of the flowerstems.

FIG. 3 is schematic view of the electrical circuit of the chip.

FIG. 4 is schematic view of an alternative embodiment of the electricalcircuit of the chip.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosedherein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodimentsare merely exemplary of the invention which may be embodied in variousforms. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosedherein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis forthe claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in theart to variously employ the present invention in virtually anyappropriately detailed structure. Specifically in this regard, it is tobe noted that the schematic drawing of the circuit of the chip shown inFIGS. 3 and 4 are only exemplary of a variety of alternativesaccomplishing the same objectives.

Reference is now made to the drawings wherein like characteristics andfeatures of the present invention shown in the various figures aredesignated by the same reference numerals.

FIG. 1 shows the invention 10 including specifically a bouquet of cutflowers 12 with a chip 14 attached to a flower stem 16. As is common inthe sale of bouquets of cut flowers in supermarkets and/or other retailestablishments, the bouquet 12 and the chip 14 are shown displayed in acontainer 18 of water 19.

In FIG. 2 the invention 10 is shown with the bouquet 12 into which hasbeen placed chip 14 attached to the upper end 20 of slender reed 22.Note that slender reed 22 extends down to the base 24 of flower stems26. This supports chip 14 at a height near flower blossoms 28.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic of a typical circuit for the chip 14, it beingunderstood that alternative circuits serving the same purpose arecontemplated by the invention, including those that may achieve multiplepurposes but at least include the purposes of the present chip.Generally shown therein as circuit 30 including a power source 32, aswitch 34, a circuit connection 36 between the power source 32 andswitch 34, a memory chip 38, a circuit connection 40 between the switch34 and the memory chip 38, a sound emitting device such as apiezo-electric buzzer or speaker 42, an electrical connection 44 betweenthe sound emitting device 42 and the memory chip 38, and finally, acircuit closing connection 46 between the sound emitting device 42 andthe power source 32.

The present invention also contemplates that the switch 34 may beactivated in a plurality of ways such as by touch, or by sound that mayinclude a clap or a vocal command such as “Speak” or “Sing”.

Because the invention further contemplates the ability to personalizethe message, the invention also includes as shown in FIG. 4 a miniaturemicrophone 50, sound recording device 52 with circuit connectiontherebetween 54. The recording device 52 is connected by 56 to memorychip 38. Finally, a recording switch 58 that turns the recordingfunction on and off which is connected at 60 to microphone 50.

While the invention has been described, disclosed, illustrated and shownin various terms or certain embodiments or modifications which it hasassumed in practice, the scope of the invention is not intended to be,nor should it be deemed to be, limited thereby in such othermodifications or embodiments as may be projected by the teachings hereinare particularly reserved especially as they fall within the breadth andscope of the claims here appended.

1. A sound emitting bouquet of flowers comprising: the bouquet of flowers; and a sound emitting chip.
 2. The sound emitting bouquet of flowers of claim 1 in which the sound emitting chip is mounted in proximity to blossoms of the bouquet of flowers.
 3. The sound emitting bouquet of flowers of claim 1 in which the sound emitting chip is comprised of a printed circuit board that includes a power source, a switch, a memory chip and a sound emitting device.
 4. The sound emitting bouquet of flowers of claim 2 in which the sound emitting device is a speaker.
 5. The sound emitting bouquet of flowers of claim 2 in which the sound emitting device is a piezo-electric buzzer.
 6. A sound emitting bouquet of flowers comprising: the bouquet of flowers; a power source; a switch; a circuit connection between the power source and the switch; a memory chip; a circuit connection between the switch and the memory chip; a sound emitting device; a circuit connection between the sound emitting device and the memory chip; and a circuit closing connection between the sound emitting device and the power source.
 7. A sound emitting bouquet of flowers comprising: the bouquet of cut flowers; a power source; a switch; a memory chip; a sound emitting device; a microphone; a recording device; and electrical connections between adjoining above described components.
 8. The sound emitting bouquet of flowers of claim 7 which further comprises a recording switch to control on and off functions of the microphone and recording device.
 9. The sound emitting bouquet of flowers of claim 7 in which electrical connections comprise: a circuit connection between the power source and the switch; a circuit connection between the switch and the memory chip; a circuit connection between the memory chip and the sound emitting device; a circuit closing connection between the sound emitting device and the power source; a circuit connection between the recording switch and the microphone; a circuit connection between the microphone and the recording device; and a circuit connection between the recording device and the memory chip. 